German telly

I have never dreamed it,
Have you ever dreamed a night like this?
I cannot believe it,
I may never see a night like this ..

Hey there. I'm still in Germany, and I'm watching a lot of telly.

German TV is a glorious mishmash of unending repeats and what is considered here 'normal' is what has been long accepted in most of the civilised world as "crap confined to during the day when no-one is around to watch it". This depressing run is punctuated by advert breaks that can literally last up to 15 minutes. I know this, because I began timing them after spending quarter of an hour developing a 1000 yard stare.

And further inbetween these lines, there are gems such as Futurama and Spongebob Squarepants, some of the few programmes that haven't suffered from translation, as well as stuff about the war that just screams "See? See? We were responsible, we admit it! Leave us be now, yeah?"

My favourite programme from last night was a re-dubbed American one called "I Used To Be Fat", which is one of those programmes where fat kids are given a personal trainer and trained the hell out of.

NOW LET ME BE CLEAR.

I am all for the rigorous exercising of fat kids. But my problem with this programme was that it should really have been titled something like "I Am Still Fat" or "I Used to be Fat But Then I Got Fatter" The words "used to be" are hardly in sight, people. They are probably being blocked by a fat person. To all on that programme, I commend your effort, but to appear on national television under that title is optimism of the highest degree.

Maybe I missed the point. Maybe it's the patronising kind of "look, they're people as well!" fat programme targeted at the German equivalent of the braindead population who genuinely enjoy these kinds of shows. Who knows.